For my mom’s 50th birthday, I wanted to do something special.  I took inspiration from some of her favorite restaurant dishes and brought them to our kitchen table. 

The first dish that I had to recreate was one that we had tried at Urban Hearth in Cambridge this past December.

On a whipped cloud of ricotta, laid a melody of sautéed spiced apples and onions.  It was simultaneously smooth yet crisp, sweet and sour. The accompaniment of a hearty whole wheat focaccia played with the dish’s sweetness in a rustic way.

When it came to making this dish myself, I had no recipe to rely on – just my memory.  According to my mom, this recreation was even better than the restaurant.

Whipped Ricotta with Apple Chutney Recipe

Ingredients

• 24 oz whole milk ricotta (or Kite Hill ricotta)
• 3 apples, cored (but not peeled): 1 granny smith, 1 pinklady, and 1 fuji
• 1 small finely chopped yellow onion
• 1 small thinly sliced yellow onion
• 4 teaspoons ginger paste
• ½ cup orange juice
• 3 ounces apple cider vinegar, a little more than ⅓ cup
• ½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• ½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon or allspice
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
• ⅓ cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted almonds

Directions

Finely chop the cored apples to roughly ¼” X ¼” pieces.

Combine the apples, onion, ginger paste, orange juice, vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seeds, pepper flakes and salt in a wide pan. You can play around with the apples you use, depending on how sweet you want it.

Bring the mixture to a low boil, and reduce the heat to simmer for 20 minutes, until there’s a syrup-y liquid left. Add the raisins and simmer for an extra 5 minutes.

Whip your ricotta with a hand mixer for 2 minutes. Place it on a plate, add the chutney on top. Sprinkle with roasted almonds.

For the focaccia, I used this recipe, and simply replaced 1/4 the amount of flour with whole wheat.